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Over the many years that Shadel have been breeding
and showing
Miniature Horses we have always had a picture
in our minds eye of the
type of horse that we are breeding for.
Interestingly enough in our search
for, and purchase, of our AMHA
minis two bloodlines came to the fore
on a regular basis.
The first of these was Del's Cowboy (photos right). This 30.5" palomino
stallion
first caught my eye when I met one of his sons, 29.5"
Rio Bella
Farms I'm a Cowboy (better known in the UK as Minkie).
Photo below.
This bloodline carries some amazing colour producing properties,
principally silver black ( silver dapple), cream and palomino.
It is also
a size reducing line, consistently producing smaller
minis (between
28 & 31") . Del's Cowboy himself was
out of the very first AMHA World Champion mare, Ruth Haynes'
Moto.
More information on this influential little stallion
can be found at http://robinsnestranch.com/home/dels.php
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(photos above show
Del's Cowboy) |
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Having fallen for this line it
was inevitable that we would want to own a grandson of this great little
horse, and that
grandson is our own Golden Oak Dreamcatcher.
Bought at six weeks old he has gone on to prove himself
both in the show ring as a yearling and two year old, and as a very
influential stallion in our breeding programme.
He continues to throw the 'Cowboy' look which is unmistakable along with the
colour. He has been proved
to be homozygous for silver, and has inherited the spotted genetics from his
dam ( Royal Oaks Morning Mist)
which he is also passing on. As a sire DC has paid for himself many times
over and I always knew there would
be more to bring out if we could find the right bloodline to cross with.
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Enter the Bear Branch
breeding.
It was not long before we discovered that these lines crossed well with
Dreamcatcher and on looking more closely we realised that we were, in fact,
line breeding to Del's Cowboy through the stallion Stonehenge Painted
Feather http://www.bearbranchranch.com/index2.html who
is a
Del's Cowboy son. He too is a small stallion ( 29.5") although many of
his get are leggier and very refined. This line was also introducing more
potential for colour in to our programme.
We now are achieving the look that we have been striving for for many
years, but there was still something missing.
With each foal born here we
could see we were getting closer to our
ideals, but not all were showing the length of neck and leg which we
wanted, which in turn would give the better movement and more
'horsey' type of mini that is most in demand today.
However, some of our foals were showing this, and by researching
further into the breeding we continually came up with one name - Rowdy.
http://www.theminiaturehorse.com/historical/rowdy.htm (photo below)
Most people who have had anything to do with the AMHA Miniature
have come across this name at some time. Rowdy was an American
Shetland Pony who remained small enough to be accepted into the
AMHA studbook, and although he was only 17 when he passed away
he has left a huge legacy in the mini world. He in turn was influenced by
the great stallion Kewpies Dolls Oracle who was one of the most
influential stallions of his era. (compare the picture on the right of
Oracle
to the one of Stonehenge Painted Feather just above).
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Stonehenge Painted
Feather
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This has proved to be the final part of our
jigsaw. The Del's Cowboy and Rowdy lines do cross well together and are
definitely producing the type of horse that we had been striving for.
These babies are naturally leggy with a good length of neck, lovely heads
and great movement. To this end you will find that
most of our mares go back to Rowdy, and alongside Dreamcatcher we have the
Painted Feather son, Mojhave, (pictured
below right) and our newest stallion, Winner (pictured below left).
These three stallions will continue to produce the legacy of their great
sires and grandsires, with the added bonus of the
Rowdy bloodlines providing the LWO genetics and splash patterns to add even
more colour to our foals in the future
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If you would like to
contact us for details of any aspect of this site or
our horses please telephone
+44 (0)1264 398324
or email shadel@ntlworld.com |
